Has anyone hired a home energy rater? Basically someone who comes out and tells you where you can be saving money on the energy bills. Out house is very drafty and my wife is looking into new windows, but the windows are not that old and I wonder if the energy is getting wasted somewhere else.

 

I had my rental property done because I wanted to replace the HVAC gear, and there's a program here that will pay for a good portion of the cost when upgrading to high efficiency gear. I learned quite a bit from the inspection about my house and ways to detect drafts etc. Just make sure you get one that does the blower door testing, I think that's where you learn the most, and check for state programs because you could some pretty decent rebates depending on what you end up doing. The report that I received from mine said that if I added up all the drafts it would be equivalent to a 10''x20'' hole in the wall. I thought it was money well spent.

 

Thats what Im looking for. PECO doesn't have much on the site, but I found contacts here: http://www.ratingsalliance.org/raters.htm#Pennsylvania . Ill call tomorrow.

 

If you are looking for a certified pro, check resnet.us and search by state.

You may indeed discover that there may be more simple fixes than replacing newer windows. When we were building our new home, we paid close attention to efficiency by paying up for extra insulation, low-e pella windows, 90% efficiency furnace etc. Glad we did it, our home is 3x bigger than our last home but our energy bills are similar.

 

good info. thanks.